**FREE CHOCOLATE.** (at least on the day I was there!)Yes, you heard it - the cafe let us have as many chocolates as I wanted to taste. Of course any decent patron would at least buy ONE bar of *really expensive chocolate* after enjoying Cupping Room's generosity. You just wouldn't abuse kindness.

***
The purpose of this post is simple. It is a declaration that I have regained Life. Last year I was deprived; now I am revived. God is good. Life and time have returned to me, my loves. So much so that I have time to sneak in to Stanley on a beautiful day with my lady friends. J craves coffee and we've been talking about this place since...forgot when. Hence the day trip.

Environment:
It is located on the 2nd level of Stanley Plaza, across from Marketplace (or whatever supermarket that is). It is not difficult to find. There are no view though, if it's a rainy day you will feel very wet, as if trapped inside a waterfall. But on a sunny day it will be extremely pleasant inside the cafe - there'll be an inpour of sunbeams

There is one high table and 3 regular ones, and a couple of countertop seats - in total around 20 seats.

Service:
The lady who came up to take our orders was extremely hard-working and welcoming. She stood outside the cafe offering passersby free samples of the delightful chocolate they stock, and offered great

Food:They got a bit of savory food too, and a few sweet items. And a truckload of chocolate to go with your coffee. The savory items are quite expensive for what they're worth...

Flat white $34J, the coffee connoisseur, remarked that this drink was as good as, if not even a tad better than that at Barista Jam. Now, Barista Jam used to be J's fave. So her stamp of approval here means a lot! To me, the ignorant free rider, this drink was pleasant - hot, aromatic, frothy, velvety texture in mouth, not 'watery' if you get what I mean, no unpleasant aftertaste in mouth. I have already forgotten what coffee bean was used, how much pressure was applied and every other technical detail which the barista painstakingly explained to us. She was knowledgeable and welcoming, and didn't come across as patronizing.

One complaint: the latte art wasn't too impressive. And I think one of the guys here is supposed to have won an international latte art contest or something.

Iced mocha $40I had this one. Note to self: order hot mocha next time.
A curious change happened to my drink over the 2 hours we were there. When it first arrived, I tasted mild sweetness, although the chocolatey notes didn't come through too well. It bordered on a regular milk and sugar coffee rather than a mocha. Fine. It had more depth than the mochas I had elsewhere - perhaps it is due to the fine quality of the beans (?). Anyway! After 45 minutes the drink morphed into something else. It lost its sweetness and became a regular iced coffee. Quite bitter, and it had lost the chocolate flavour substantially (not that there was a lot to begin with). No idea what caused the change - maybe I'd sipped all the syrup away..?
J advised me to order hot mocha next time. Yeah. Agreed.
Also, curious how they served it up in a plastic cup rather than a tall glass. I wanted mine in a glass - more envir friendly!

Columbia BellavistaB ordered this. Again, the Barista spent a lot of time explaining this beverage to us but my memory has again, consistently, failed me! (heh from Columbia..?) I do remember though, that this drink felt more like a tea than a coffee, as you can tell, from the light color. So it was very interesting. A tea-like drink which doesn't taste like tea brewed from tea leaves. Most curious. This one tasted quite fruity and had a subtle sweetness. However, I would not order it again - it is not my cup. And it is not cheap. But it is special. Anyone who loves coffee should give it a shot. I could imagine it being used as an ingredient in a contemporary (molecular tech) restaurant...

Brownie
Quite expensive for the small portion. I was not impressed with this brownie. The flavour was alright but the texture was wrong - too crumbly. I prefer a chewier brownie with crunchy edges - ah they are the best. Should be served with ice cream, mm. And the brownie should be hot. Would not go for this.

The Chocolate Room and The Cupping Room are in fact, the same store. And here you see this huge stash of chocolates-difficult-to-find-elsewhere-in-HK:I bought a pack of honey chamomile white chocolate $65 but it turned out to be quite disappointing. Oh well. I just bought it for a friend who liked chamomile. :/
The free tasting chocolates range from chocolate coated coffee beans to chocolate coated fruit to chili chocolate. Nuts, mostly. They are not top notch at all, but you sort of overlook that and focus on the cafe's generosity instead. I controlled myself and had a handful *only*. The barista saw me fretting over which ones to pick and teased me. Prolly saw through the facade and identified it as a utility (calorie-enjoyment) dilemma.

Conclusion:
Will be here more often once I get my license and can drive to Stanley. Really pleasant afternoon we had here, trying to read our boring books, strolling around Stanley plaza, having a bit of lunch, enjoying Life in good company.

I could not remember when my last time visiting Stanley was. It has always been in my mind that Stanley, a place isolated from the hustle and bustle of the city, is a cozy spot for tourist or foreigners to hang around. After a hectic month, my friends and I decided to pretend to be tourists for one day and spend a relaxing afternoon here.

After a half-hour minibus ride from Causeway Bay, we arrived at this beautifully calm place. The energising sunlight coupled with gentle breeze gave me a good sense of vacation mood. We strolled along the Stanley Plaza and I was captivated by the showcase of this cafe- there was a collection of chocolate behind the glass display window. While I was doing window-shopping staring at the chocolate bars which were wrapped like a CD, the waitress (or perhaps the cafe owner?) came to us and enthusiastically introduced the characters of various chocolate. She even told us that we could help ourselves and try out whatever chocolate on display for free- and she was not joking! (However I am not sure if this was the usual approach of this cafe, or if it just happened to be that the waitress was of a particularly good mood that day. What I was quite sure was that the waitress was friendly and sincere.) Following her invitation, I tried the toffee pistachios (top left of the display). The first thing that came to my sensation was the sweetness of the sugar frosting, followed by a nice crunch of nut. The frosting was too sweet that it covered the taste of the nut and the chocolate coating.

On the shelf, there were some chocolate bars with interesting flavour such as mushroom and chilly. However there was no tasting for these kinds of choc, and I was not prepared to spend a hundred bugs trying out these advantageous flavour.

Beverage
After playing around the display corner, we finally settled at a table (and I eventually start to share my dining experience!).

At first I thought this cafe was specialised in chocolates with unusually interesting fillings or flavours. This cafe is actually also an expert in coffee and has won some international barista competition. As a layman, I conservatively chose cappuccino.

Cappuccino $34
I liked how my cappuccino was served in a blueish grey teacup with a delicately drawn latte art. In Hong Kong, it is not uncommon that camera eats first. While we were busily using our phones to capture this visually appealing art, the waitress kindly reminded us to start drinking now, or the foam would condense and harden. Normally waiters/ waitresses serve their customer only at the time of taking order, delivering the food and checking the bill. However this waitress would concern whether her customer could get the best coffee experience. Her passion for coffee and hospitality impressed me.

Taking her advice, I put down my phone and had a slip of the cappuccino. The texture and the taste were quite different from what I experienced in the chain coffee shop. It had a nice creamy milk foam and a rich aroma of coffee. It was not bitter at all.

Flat white $34My friends J and M exclaimed that the flat white was very smooth- and I agreed. The milk foam was thick, creamy and remarkably smooth, and it was not easy for me to restrain from drinking too much my friend's beverage.

Columbia bellavista This coffee was served in a transparent glass teapot with a glass lid. No milk was added to this type of coffee, and hence the texture was not as 'thick' as the usual ones.
The waitress suggested my friend B smelling before drinking so that B could experience two different tastes.
J said it tasted like Chinese medicine. I tried a small slip, and the taste astonished me. It did not taste like 'coffee' at all! It tasted sour. (Honestly I do not know how to appreciate it; Yet do treat this as a neutral comment).

Food
Valrhona Brownie $28 The brownie had a rich chocolate taste. It was moist. The crispy nuts diversified the texture and rightly balanced the denseness of the brownie. I was slightly disappointed that the brownie was not heated and was in a relatively tiny portion (This brownie was less than half of my palm's size).

Environment and service
This is a petite cafe with simplistic interior design that could hold less than 20 customers.
The service was excellent. The waitress made me feel comfortable even I tried the chocolate without buying.

Next
This cafe serves both common and rare types of coffee and chocolates, and therefore could cater both conservative customers and those who expect stimulus.
I would recommend this cafe to anyone who wishes to spend a relaxing weekday with some really nice coffee!

I typically don't visit a cafe right after its opening. I believe each operation needs some fine-tuning say at least a month or so before they settle in. One needs to give some time for it to mature and this is what I agree with words I got from one of the world-renowned coffee luminaries who is based in Hong Kong.

Nevertheless, the first Synesso in Hong Kong and the award winning barista are temptations that drew me there today. So I decided to make a pilgrimage to the other side of the island, surviving the winding road and jerky motion that usually make me throw up and, finally, was glad I made this visit.Showing the true color of serious coffee people even at its entrance, the cupping room is well stocked with goodies for coffee enthusiasts on the shelf, be it the popular consumer grinder Baratza Maestro Plus, Aeropress, Hario Vac Pot, Chemex, some beans though I wonder why some "pre packaged pre ground coffee" is there ... This is one of the main reasons I wanna drop by the cafe early in its operation. Let me tell you upfront that I am a fan of Synesso and have been waiting for a cafe in Hong Kong to install this high-end machine in a real cafe setting for so long. Finally, my dream comes true so I can't wait.

While some will say that they can adjust any machine to deliver the coffee in any certain taste profile, my experience with Synesso has been consistent across the board whether the machine is in Taipei, Toronto, Hong Kong and Bangkok with an unmistakably superb clarity like one lifted the veil up from espresso you tastes from any other machine. And cups from The Cupping Room definitely showed this exact same trait. I can’t say of all coffee machines in this world but as far as my experience goes, this is an excellent trait one should watch out for cups from Synesso. BE careful, this cup clarity is really addictive

One may wonder how come it takes so long for Hong Kong to get its first Synesso! AFAIK, Synesso is relatively new to this part of the world; Synesso only appointed its agent in both Thailand and Hong Kong in 2009. In addition, the current operation and aftersales service of Synesso's major competitor, La Marzocco, is second to none in Hong Kong. For any cafe operator, the downtime of the machine is what they scare the most. While Synesso itself was renowned for its 'built like a tank' and ease of maintenance, which are major goals in Synesso's machine, to have a great and knowledgeable support makes all the different and easy for cafe operators to pick up a comparable machine and run its business knowing there is a helping hand around the corner if there is a need. However, on the other side of the coin, I admire the cafe that is willing to take some risks like The Cupping Room on the back of the pursuit for the great and unique cup quality. Besides, lots are willing to operate Synesso elsewhere despite the support, showing a degree of trust and belief ont he reliability Synesso machine has been demonstrating since it came to the market in 2004. Another sign that you are likely to get a good cup of coffee here. The Hong Kong Barista Championship (HKBC) is a big league event of which the winner will represent Hong Kong for the first time in this heavyweight circuit competing against barista all over the world and, in case the winner can’t make it, it will be the barista at The Cupping Room who will represent Hong Kong. With this in mind, I actually consider the top three in the 1st HKBC to be equally capable of making a great cup of coffee. On top of that the barista here was qualified, ie pass the test, to become a member of a Specialty Coffee Association of America.That’s the basic background and now it’s the thing I was there for, coffee.

I like how the bean looked in the hopper as it’s relatively dry indicated a lighter roast of the bean which allows the origin of the bean to shine vs. those darker and more oily bean, a sign of darker roast which not only suppresses the origin taste with roasty tone of the roast but also increases the risk of the bean turning rancid due the reaction of the oil on the surface of the bean with the air. You see them everywhere with imports coffee done by most cafes, particularly the Italian ones and you can estimate how much care they put into their coffee...

The roaster is Fahrenheit Five-Hundred (F500) which may be a new kid on the block in this part of the world but brought with him experiences in roasting coffee elsewhere including from the land down under.

I was not told whether this blend is off the shelf from F500 or a blend tailored just for The Cupping Room though coffees inside are a blend of Brazil, Guatemala and El Salvador. I’m already ok with the blend just looking at the component; at least there is no Sumatra, a darling bean among local coffee drinkers as it gives a big body and "strong" coffee whatever they want to call at the expense of the earthy aftertaste with, sometimes, funky off-note that is not a thing for some coffee lovers including me.Let start with my usual which I have not had it for a long time as I haven't visited new cafes for long I almost forgot how to address/focus in the cup when I drank it.

One good thing about The Cupping Room is that it does not employ any chocolate powder or things to do the cover up job for its milk drink in case something goes wrong with the drink. This gives an undivided attention to how well its barista prepares the drink, froths the milk and the real taste of well froth milk with coffee to shine.

The cup came very close the highest level of my acceptable temperature range. While I prefer the temp lower than this level but this was acceptable. The texture of the milk drink was reasonable, not as luxurious and velvety as Crema Coffee in TST East for sure though this is not a light cup or fragile foam one gets from chained café, ie good but not impressive. The cup has a very strong coffee overtone and, apart from the coffee itself, chocolate tone is pretty much what is in the cup, so much so that it drown out other tasting notes that might be there. On the thing that I don’t really like, this strong coffee tone pretty much killed any milk sweetness that might be in there and is very common for the level of milk coffee delivered to me by any award winning barista I know of, be it on regional league like Grand Barista Championship or other top ranked barista from HKBC.

Nevertheless, this is not quite a fair comparison as The Cupping Room is only into its second week. You need to give some time for any operation to settle, even those opened by an experience one. The Cupping Room is no exception. With this in mind, the cup was really good and, to me, will likely to improve further with a bit of a fine-tuning. The important thing is I can recommend people to drink this coffee and that's not what I do all the time for any café out there.As a black coffee, the house blend in an espresso form is very 'regular' vs. my initial expectation of 'wow' in the cup I have been getting from coffees out of Synesso elsewhere. The cup has some acidity with relatively low in body and I would rather have this cup a bit sweeter than what it was served. Nevertheless, this cup reminded me of the tone of those house blends by Barista Jam, ie more of a front and center though they are much clearer in the taste likely due to the signature taste from Synesso. To me, the coffee was good but had a feeling of almost there, ie it can be further improved. Still I get a very nice layer of acidity and very clear cup profile while I love its aftertaste of spice. Not bad at all.As an aside, I have a sip of this coffee which was via manual drip brew and served to the other customer. I was told the coffee is a Cup of Excellence (COE) level. Nevertheless, I was totally shocked with what I got in the cup for the level of coffee I was told. The overall cup was very subdued unlike other COEs I have had and I wouldn't know if nobody tell me this is COE which should be easy for coffee drinkers to detect the clean and complex tasting notes. I happened to have the similar kind of coffee from a Toronto based roaster with me which is Social Coffee Company Costa Rica La Montana 2011 COE#16. I asked the barista to brew a cup for me and it was a night and day with ton of bright acidity/passion fruit/stone fruit forward, a prized possession of this COE coffee. I have no answer for this but it is less likely to be a problem of its barista.I jumped back to espresso and asked for any special offering that the Cupping Room happened to carry. I was lucky this was the coffee the barista used in the HKBC that landed him the second place. The coffee was roasted by Mojo Coffee, the renowned roaster in Taiwan and was very peachy/stone fruit forward, very intense with a very sweet finish. Again, the body is on a thin side, not as thin as the cup I got from Barista Jam in the past but probably the thinnest one among all the cups I had via Synesso. It is very interesting coffee but more of a hit and go with not much of the charm left in the cup for me. Still, I would drink this coffee anytime if it's on the offering.I asked for his filtered coffee and this is what was recommended. It is as if all the professional people loves something very forward and strong in taste I think most of them loves Kenya. However, I don't.

Nevertheless, I will drink it if anybody recommends it. To avoid one, one will miss an important chance to open one's eye.... Before the coffee, let touch a bit about its filtered coffee program. At the moment, the way the Cupping Room approaches the program, IMHO, seemed to be inspired by what Barista Jam started, ie offering quite a few decent coffee choices via various brewing methods, including French press, Aeropress and V60 manual paper drip, that fit such coffee. For my visit, there were four coffees offering at the time. The Cupping Room's customers can choose any which brewing method they like or they can just leave the choice in the hand of the barista which should know how best each coffee bean will perform in the cup which is what I did for my coffee. Though the program does not have the same breath like what is offering at Knockbox Coffee Company, this provides a good way to educate consumers in that particularly area which, I was told, remains relatively new to the world of good coffee but definitely has a wherewithal and purchasing power to pick up anything to their heart's desire if they begin to appreciate such offerings. This is a good combination of nice crowd and nice cafe offering, credited the idea to the owner of the Cupping Room, IMHO.The cup is very Kenyan, a strong note of lemon all over the place but with some complexity that does not seem to match the high score it shows. Nevertheless, I think Kenya lovers will be happy with this cup but you know Kenya and me... One can easily sense the care and love of coffee the owner puts into this café. These cups were from his own collection and, to me, this tiny detail made visiting a café even more interesting.

In all, the Cupping Room is definitely a highlight for coffee lovers who plan to visit that part of the town. As the operation is only in its second week as of this writing, some rough edges remain to be worked out, particularly the bean choices and the cooperation between roasters and the barista to bring the cup to another level. I was told that feature beans going forward will be from F500 and Mojo Coffee though I’m sure this was not set in stone considering the duration the café is in business. With time, I have no doubt this café will improve considerably on the back of its superb equipment choice and the professionalism and enthusiasm of the operator shown to me during my visit.